NOTE 4:
INTRODUCTION - THE MISSION OF THE MEDICAL PROGRAM.
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_ BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY
ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES, INC.
Upton, Long Island, New York 14973
516) 282
¢ 1s 666 ,
Medical Department
* April 28, 1988
Henry Kohn, M.D.
Rongelap Reassessment Project
1203 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, California
Dear Dr.
94709
.
Kohn,
Let me state briefly what the Brookhaven National Laboratory
Marshall Islande Medical Program is and what it is not.
The medical program is mandated by Congress under Publie Law
95-134 to provide for diagnosis and treatment of radiationrelated disease among the populations of Rongelap and Utirik
exposed to Bravo fallout radiation in 1954. The U.S. Department
of Energy fulfills this mandate by contracting with the medical
department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, to provide said care.
The Department of Energy has permitted, by providing the
necessary operating funds, an extension of the program to cover
many aspects of health care unrelated to radiation exposure and
to offer medical services to a great number of unexposed persons.
No funds are made available for research because Congress did not
intend the medical program to carry out research; clinical care
of the injured parties is the program’s sole purpose.
Therefore,
all activities of the medical program have a clinical goal, that
being improvement of the health of the population identified in
PL 95-134.
The ability to disseminate the capabilities of the
medical program among the general Marshallese population
repregents the natural tendency of any health care organization.
It is to the great credit of U.S. Department of Energy personnel
responsible for carrying out the Congressional mandate that this
expansion of coverage has been warmly supported.
Sincerely yours,
LOM.times
William H. Adame, M.D.
Director, Marshall Islands
Medical Program
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